Chris is available for hire
Hire ChrisChris Roks
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Irvine, CA, United States
Toptal member since April 4, 2020
Bio
Chris is a passionate product leader with 13 years of experience defining strategies and building innovative products for customers in both the public and private sectors. He is a dynamic product and engineering manager with a background in machine learning, mobile technology, eCommerce, enterprise, consumer, and government product development. Chris specializes in market strategy, user experience, system design, and the launch and evaluation of major products, programs, and services.
Project Highlights
Amazon Underground for Android
Led the development and launch of the Amazon Underground App for Android, a brand new concept where customers got premium apps and games for free while developers got paid by how much customers actually used their apps.
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Product Management
- Product Strategy
- Technical Program Management
Work Experience
Director of Product Management
2018 - PRESENT
Blackberry Cylance
- Designed, developed, and introduced CylancePERSONA, an AI-driven, behavioral analytics solution that leverages biometric and user conduct data to proactively prevent catastrophic damage from stolen credentials and malicious insider threats.
- Built and launched CylanceGUARD, a 24x7 managed detection and response solution which leverages Blackberry Cylance’s AI platform to automate response and provide threat hunting and containment services for customers.
- Led product development of new best-in-class malware prevention AI engines across six different executable types, including Blackberry Cylance’s first APK engine, enabling the launch into Android malware protection.
- Invented and implemented the technical process and methods for generating a real-time user trust score utilizing eight different machine learning models, including keyboard, mouse, logon, process start, network activity, and sequential event models.
Senior Director, Product Management
2016 - 2018
Veritone
- Led product management for four of Veritone’s five business verticals, including the Federal Government, Public Safety, Legal, and Compliance. Oversaw the strategy, engineering management, and market entry into all of these verticals.
- Designed, built, and launched the Veritone Relativity AI Hub. Brought machine transcription, translation, object recognition, facial recognition, and automated redaction to the platform.
- Grew the Legal vertical from zero to hundreds of B2B customers and over 40 reseller partners.
- Developed and launched Veritone’s Conductor product, which leverages machine learning to orchestrated multiple narrow intelligence AI engines in a single output. Improved transcription accuracy by 30%, leading to a $1.1 million contract.
- Managed the partnership, design, and technical integration with Amazon in the launch of AWS Kinesis Video Streams at re:Invent ‘18.
- Invented and received a patent titled “System and Method for Redacting Content.” This invention enables customers to redact millions of hours of audio content in just minutes utilizing machine learning and natural language processing engines.
Manager, Technical Product Management
2014 - 2016
Amazon - Appstore
- Led a 30-person team encompassing product management, UX design, program management, and software engineering. Oversaw the end-to-end strategy, selection, and roadmap for the Amazon Appstore on mobile devices.
- Launched the Amazon Underground App for Android, a new app economy concept where customers got premium apps and games for free while developers got paid based on the total hours that customers used their apps or games.
- Conceptualized, led, and launched an SDK versioning framework that ensures both forward and backward app compatibility on Amazon devices.
- Designed and launched Appstore’s first mobile ads campaign attribution program enabling marketers to run, track, visualize, and optimize the performance of their ad spend across third-party ad networks.
- Expanded the Apps and Games category on the Amazon App to France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, and Brazil.
Senior Product Manager
2012 - 2014
Amazon - Kindle
- Led the product management, market strategy, and development for Kindle Documents and “Send to Kindle,” which comprised a suite of mobile and desktop applications that were used by millions of customers worldwide.
- Owned the end-to-end customer experience for consuming office documents and web articles on all Kindle e-readers, tablets, and iOS and Android apps.
- Launched the Docs app on the Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX, and Kindle Paperwhite. Expanded Send-to-Kindle globally, including Japan, China, Brazil, Canada, India, and Australia.
- Led the end-to-end development of the “Send to Kindle Button,” enabling customers to save articles from websites to read on their Kindle. Owned all business development including securing launch partners like Time Magazine and the Washington Post.
Captain - Product Manager
2006 - 2012
US Air Force
- Led the product and program management for the $6.5 million congressionally directed Space Awareness and Global Exploitation (SAGE) system, fusing infrared data into current national intelligence systems and theatre operations.
- Managed an 11-person team in the execution of a $126 million annual budget as well as program schedule and performance execution for the development of a worldwide ground architecture and operations system.
- Drove the requirements generation, risk management, cost analysis, and earned value system for the SBIRS Ground Division, resulting in the investment of $694 million for product development.
Project History
Amazon Underground for Android
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_UndergroundLed the development and launch of the Amazon Underground App for Android, a brand new concept where customers got premium apps and games for free while developers got paid by how much customers actually used their apps.
The Amazon Underground App for Android was an innovative App Store concept that aimed to compete directly with Google Play on the Android Platform. Within weeks of launch, the Amazon Appstore was installed on millions for Android devices worldwide. With Amazon Underground, customers could freely download and obtain in-app items they would otherwise have to pay money to purchase from Google Play.
Education
2010 - 2012
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
UCLA - Los Angeles, California, USA
2002 - 2006
Bachelor of Science Degree in Systems Engineering Management
US Air Force Academy - Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Skills
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Trello, GitHub, Slack, Zoom, Balsamiq
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, B2C
Other
Product Management, Technical Product Management, Product Owner, Product Strategy, Technical Program Management, User Experience (UX), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software as a Service (SaaS), Machine Learning, Mobile Apps, B2B, Cybersecurity
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